British leader David Cameron wants more surveillance of citizens

While tech companies and privacy advocates want less surveillance in the U.S., the British government will consider emergency measures Monday that would force online and phone companies to retain more information about the calls and e-mails coming from their customers.

The Guardian reports that “there will be no power to look at the content of phone calls, only location, date and the phone numbers.”

Prime Minister David Cameron said Thursday that “as events in Iraq and Syria demonstrate, now is not the time to be scaling back on our ability to keep our people safe.

“The ability to access information about communications and intercept the communications of dangerous individuals is essential to fight the threat from criminals and terrorists targeting the U.K.,” he said.

I’ll be explaining today why emergency legislation is needed to maintain powers to help keep us safe from those who would harm UK citizens.

Cameron’s office maintained that they were forced to press for emergency measures after a European court ruled in April that the current laws violated individual privacy. If there were no laws mandating telecoms and Internet companies from keeping records, the companies would have no obligation to do so — and that could hurt the government’s ability to mine that information during its terrorism investigations, the government said.

The opposition Labor Party is going along with the measures because of some safeguards they say are built into the new laws. They will expire in 2016, allowing for new legislation to be crafted after the next election. Liberal Democrats say the proposals are not an extension of existing laws or of more invasive powers known as “snooper’s charter.”

“We know the consequences of not acting are serious, but this urgency will not be used as an excuse for more powers, or for a ‘snooper’s charter’.

“I believe that successive governments have neglected civil liberties in the pursuit of greater security. We will be the first government in many decades to increase transparency and oversight, and make significant progress in defence of liberty. But liberty and security must go hand in hand. We can’t enjoy our freedom if we’re unable to keep ourselves safe.”